Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Our First Family Minister to Families Cory Brand asked me if I had a blog. I told him I did and sent him the link. After the shame he heaped upon me that it has been a long, long time since I updated, I'm back to work. Let's start here.

At lunch yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit with some new friends. One of our international partners brought them through Midland and they stayed at one of FBC's missionary houses. I have no clue if their stories are true, but I have no reason to doubt them either, esp with their connection with our ministry partner. Here's what I learned.

One of our guests is a trained engineer, trained at China’s version of MIT. He came to faith in Christ while in school and wanted to come to Westminister Seminary in Philadelphia, but couldn’t get the proper paperwork in place. Instead, he was working for the Chinese government and discipling believers at home. It wasn’t long till he was caught and jailed for 8 years. He got out and w…

Despite my best efforts to keep this until Sunday, the news has leaked out of the new calling on our lives. Julie, Joshua and I are leaving. Last Sunday, we went in view of a call as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Midland, TX. With a unanimous vote, they called us and we've accepted. After consultation with our personnel committee and deacon leadership, we've set our final Sunday here as January 24.

I want to dispel the notion that Julie and I are leaving because of any particular situation or because we're upset. Quite the opposite. I'm more confident now about the direction of CBC than since I came here. No, we don't feel badly about CBC. Nor is our choice linked to the "bigger is better" idea. Instead, it's rooted in what I believe is the calling of the Spirit of God, just like it was when we came here. I operate on the idea of being called TO, not called FROM. Our departure is rooted in the firm conviction that we're no…

Grace and Peace to my new FBC family! I'm humbled to be your new pastor and I eagerly look forward to transitioning to in your fine church! You have big shoes to fill - serving at Central has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. They've loved us and walked with us through some wonderful, difficult and just plain weird times. We'll never outrun the mark they left on our lives. Thanks for allowing us this time to leave well.

That said, we're humbled by your overwhelming vote to call us. (The picture attached here is one Jim Cawthon took last week on Sunday night.) Wow! We were so blessed by your kindness and grace when we were there last week. We have been so blessed by the kind notes of welcome and encouragement we've received this week. Thanks for all of your hospitality and thanks in advance for the wonderful journey we will share.
Via email, I talked with your former pastor Dr. Jim Denison this week. He told me "FBC is an exceptionally …